Meet Elle Darby, the 22-year-old social media influencer who was 'exposed' after she asked for a free 5-night stay at a hotel

Social media influencer Elle Darby recently made headlines after she asked for a free hotel stay in return for publicity.

But Darby, who currently has over 97,000 subscribers on YouTube and 90,000 followers on Instagram, is no stranger to the spotlight. The 22-year-old first made a name for herself in 2015, when she started documenting her year-long transformation into a fitness vlogger.

Below, we've rounded up everything you need to know about the young social media star.

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Darby is a self-described "beauty, lifestyle, and fitness YouTuber" from the UK.

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She got her start on YouTube in 2015, when she first started documenting her transformation into a fitness vlogger.

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According to her Instagram, Darby has received a "personal training qualification."

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She regularly posts workout routines, food recipes, shopping hauls, and more on her popular YouTube channel.

In 2015, the influencer, then 19, followed a strict workout routine consisting of weight lifting and cardio training for a year.

She also started a new diet and nutrition plan when she moved into student housing at the University of the West of England in Bristol.

"I made a decision to become the best version of myself I could be — mentally and physically," Darby told the Daily Mail in 2015.

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She competed in her first bikini competition in 2016.

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At the beginning of 2018, Darby underwent strabismus surgery for her "lazy eye."

"Today I took the reigns [sic] back on what has always been my BIGGEST insecurity — my lazy eye," she wrote on Instagram.

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Darby is currently dating Connor Swift, a personal trainer, fellow YouTuber, and the founder and owner of a "lifestyle fitness apparel" company called Swift Athletics.

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She made headlines in 2018 when she posted a video in which she said she was "exposed" after asking for a free five-night stay at The White Moose Café and Charleville Lodge in Dublin, Ireland.

Darby was referencing a Facebook post that Paul Stenson, the owner of The White Moose Café and Charleville Lodge, had written in reply to one of her emails.

"Thank you for your email looking for free accommodation in return for exposure," Stenson said in the post. "It takes a lot of balls to send an email like that, if not much self-respect and dignity."

The hotel and café owner then went on to deny her request for a free stay. In his post, Stenson also included a screenshot of Darby's original email but crossed out the influencer's personal information and did not refer to her by name.

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In a follow-up video, Darby said she has received death threats and "cancer wishes" since Stenson replied to her email on Facebook.

The influencer also claimed that her name and YouTube channel were visible in Stenson's Facebook post despite his attempts to cross that information out. "The parts with my name on had not been blacked out [...] it had, like, a black highlighter over them but — if you turned up the brightness on your screen — you could see my name, my channel, my URL," Darby said.

She also emphasized her desire to "forget about" the situation and move on.

INSIDER has reached out to Elle Darby for comment.

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